God bless you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ who provides the wherewithal to walk worthy of his calling (Ephesians 4:1).
I received a question recently that really intrigued me. I thought it would be good fodder for today’s daily dose. He asked, “How can the Hebrew word translated “curse” in Job 2:5 also be translated “bless” at other places?” So, I started digging.
The Hebrew word barak occurs 330 times in the Old Testament. It is uniformly translated “bless.” However, there are four occurrences where barak is translated “curse.” How can the same word be translated in two completely opposite ways? How can it mean both “bless” and “curse?” This really caused problems for me because the context certainly supports the radical difference. The only four places barak is translated “curse” are in Job.
Job 1:5:
And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed [barak] God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.
Job 1:11:
But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse [barak] thee to thy face.
Job 2:5:
But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse [barak] thee to thy face.
Job 2:9:
His wife said to him, “Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse [barak] God and die!”
The context here certainly supports “curse” as the proper translation. After spending considerable time trying to figure out a reason for the difference in translation and coming up empty handed, I noticed a comment in the Companion Bible stating that the use of barak in these four verses were emendations of the Sopherim. In the original text the Sopherim, the authorized revisers of the Sacred Text, replaced kalal, “to curse” with barak “to bless.” This was done under the unwarranted idea of protecting and reverencing God and the name of the LORD. They wanted to avoid the notion that God could be cursed, so they altered the text.
Barak also occurs four times in Job where it is translated “bless.” Each of their contexts also support that translation.
Job 1:10:
Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou [God] hast blessed [barak] the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:21:
And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed [barak] be the name of the LORD.”
Job 31:20:
If his loins have not blessed [barak] me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
Job 42:12:
So the LORD blessed [barak] the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.
The pattern (if four makes a pattern) is that when God is the object, barak is understood as “curse,” and when God is the subject barak is understood as “bless.” However, barak doesn’t mean both “bless” and “curse.” The original text before being emended by the Sopherim had the Hebrew word “kalal” in all four verses where it is translated “curse.” When we replace barak with kalal we get back to the original text before the misguided emendations and the simplicity of the Word shines brightly once again.